A New Identity
“So He said to him,
“What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” – Genesis 32:27
Jacob was the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham. He was the twin brother to Esau, but not the
first born. When born, Jacob was holding
to the heel of Esau, as if to pull Esau back and take his place. There was deceit in Jacob from the beginning. His name means “deceiver or “supplanter”,
someone who takes the place of another.
Esau, having been born first, should have received the
larger portion of an inheritance when Isaac died. But Jacob found his brother hungry one day,
and used his hunger to entice him to give up his birthrights for a bowl of
stew. To assure that Jacob received the
blessing of his father when Isaac was dying, his own mother helped him deceive
his father into thinking that he was Esau.
Maybe because of the name he had been given he didn’t trust
that God could make him anything else.
Maybe he felt that his walk in life was set when he was born, and there
was no other blessing to be received unless he stole it, or deceived someone
for it.
God wanted to show Jacob how his deceit affected others. He allowed him to be on the receiving end of deceitfulness.
Jacob, running from Esau after stealing
the blessing of his father, went to Haran.
There he fell in love with a woman named Rachel. He made a pact with her father Laban that he
would work for her hand in marriage for seven years. But at the end of the seven years, when he
received a wife from Laban, he was tricked into taking her older sister
Leah. God used Laban to teach Jacob the
effects of being deceived. Jacob worked
another seven years to receive Rachel as his wife.
When we look at the story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, we can
see God’s punishment for Jacob’s deceit in the seven extra years he worked for
her, and in the struggle between Leah and Rachel. But we cannot overlook God’s blessing as
well. Laban chose to pay Jacob for his
labor as a herdsman by selecting a certain marking of the sheep and goats that
would be born each season. But if Laban
said to Jacob that the speckled ones would be his, then most of them would be
speckled. If Laban said that the ones
that had white on them were to be Jacob’s, most would have white on them. If Laban said the spotted ones would be Jacob’s
wages, then most would have spots. God
assured Jacob would be blessed by marking the sheep and goats before they were
born as Jacob’s wages.
Jacob had made a vow to God while running from Esau. He came to a place called Luz. While he lay
there and slept God gave him a dream. In
the dream angels were going up and down a ladder to Heaven. God spoke to Jacob in the dream, and said “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father
and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your
descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the
dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the
north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth
shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring
you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have
spoken to you.”(Genesis 28:13-15)
God has told Jacob that He was going to bless him. He told him that wherever he did end up, He
would see that he was brought back to that place. He tells him, “I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” God
was intent in blessing Jacob from the beginning, and the sheep and goats were evidence
of that blessing.
Then Jacob awoke from the dream and said “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”(Genesis 28:16) and made
an altar of stones there, anointed it with oil and named the place Bethel, which
means “house of God”. He found that God lived there, and that
there, God told him He would give the place to his descendants. Where God lived, there they would live. (Do you see the foreshadowing of the Holy
Spirit living in us?)
Jacob is then overwhelmed with God’s love,
and makes a vow to God. Yes, Jacob the
deceiver makes a vow, one that he keeps.
In Genesis 28:20-22 he says “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and
give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house
in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone
which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me
I will surely give a tenth to You.”
Twenty years pass before Jacob returns to his
family. He’s now got two wives, Leah and
Rachel. He has children, servants, and
livestock. He has riches from the wages
earned while with Laban, his father-in-law.
God had kept up his part of the vow, and Jacob had been faithful to God.
Yet Jacob was still known as the
deceiver. That was his name. Now, on the way back home, where people only
know him by the way he had walked in the name he had been given before, he had
to face that identity again. To try to
prove his changed way, he begins sending waves of gifts to his brother
Esau. He wanted Esau to see the change
in him before he faced him.
Jacob came to the Jabok River, which was a
stream off the Jordan River. He crossed
over it with his wives, sons, and servants, and spent the night there in a
place alone. While there, the Angel of
God came to him and they wrestled until morning. During the wrestling, the Angel touched his
hip socket, and his hip went out of joint.
In Genesis 32:26 the Angel says to Jacob “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”, but Jacob replied “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
Jacob again sought to be blessed by God. What happens next is the blessing.
The Angel asks Jacob “What is your name?” Shame
must have come to Jacob as he had to admit to being named the deceiver, the
supplanter, the heal-grabber, the one who puts himself in a position that’s not
his. I’m sure it was with a heavy heart
that he answered with only one word, “Jacob”. Then the Angel spoke and said “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob,
but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”(Genesis
32:28).
He blessed him with a new identity. But before he could bless him, he changed him. He took his hip out of joint. He changed Jacob’s walk. He changed how he would be seen by man as he
returned to his family limping.
The place where they wrestled is called
Penuel, which means “face of God”. It
was there that Jacob had an encounter with the Angel of God. When you see the face of God, have that one-on-one
encounter, you will be changed. He will
change your walk. He will change the way
people see you. They will see Him living
inside you, and His blessings on you.
Jacob was no longer the deceiver. He became Israel, because he had struggled
with God and man, and prevailed. Yet,
the name Israel means “God prevails”.
When you come face to face with God, when you allow Him to enter into
your heart, His Spirit lives within. God
prevails! He prevails over who you are,
and makes you into who He wants you to be.
You receive a new walk. You
become an overcomer through Him. You
become blessed by Him. His Spirit in you
gives not only a new life - but also a new identity.
Sometimes we live with such a burden from
who we were in the past that we feel we can’t go forward. We can’t walk away from the sins we’ve
committed. We can’t free ourselves of
our reputation. We can’t silence the
voices in our heads that speak shame and guilt.
God says “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for
I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My
yoke is easy and My burden is
light.”(Matthew 11:28-30) Come to God, come face-to-face with Him in
prayer and ask for a new identity in Him.
He will change your walk and receive you as His Child, reborn, renamed, with
a new life.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all
things have become new.”(2 Corinthians 5:17)
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